The Sorcerer and the White
Snake
Director: Ching Siu-tung
Year: 2011
Rating: 6.0
Once
again, the Legend of the White Snake is tackled in film, this time by none
other than Ching Siu-tung, the man behind so many of the great Hong Kong
fantasy films of the 1990s. This is considered one of the four great
legends in Chinese literature and has been continuously adapted into opera,
theater, film and television. Not just in China but versions of this have
reached to Korea and Japan. The story has taken on many versions over the
years - beginning as a tale of religious orthodoxy and rigidity but over
time morphing into a romance with tragic undertones. One might wonder why
this story of a snake falling in love with a human and taking on human form
to consummate that love has been such a staple over generations going back
to the Ming Dynasty. Is it just a great fantasy tale or is it the breaking
of strict conservative structures that bound people by class and status.
Is it even relevant today with the clash over gender and sexual preferences?
Is the Monk who wants to uphold these boundaries a hero or a villain. He
started off very much as a villain jealous of the powers of the White Snake
but over reiterations he has become an honorable man but unable to see beyond
his fanatical religious beliefs.
Ching really goes heavy on the CGI, ridiculously
so at times. He layers it on with a shovel. It felt like I was in a bad Marvel
movie, but the essence of the story remains the same. It seemed for a while
that this was for children with the use of bright saturated colors - like
a box of Crayola's exploded - and the inclusion of talking mice and rabbits,
turtles, toads and chickens being able to turn human for short periods of
time. More comic than anything. I was sure therefore that it would be turned
into a happy ending but quite the opposite. The message in the end appears
to state that stepping out of convention and class can only end badly. That
love should stay home.
Jet Li plays the Monk Fahai in the film.
Li is in fact a devout Buddhist who meditates daily and back after Hitman
in 1998 indicated that he wanted to retire - at least from action films -
and dedicate himself to Buddhist study. That didn't last long but the
number of films he was in slowed down considerably. Perhaps the idea of playing
a righteous if harsh and unforgiving Monk appealed to him. He is a Demon
Hunter in this one and we first see him and his apprentice Nengren (Wen Zhang)
capture an Ice Harpy (Vivian Hsu) and bottle her up to be kept in Leifeng
Pagoda (a true existing structure) for them to learn mercy.
Nearby two female snake sisters with long
tails but human heads are lolling about watching a group of humans search
for curative herbs. The White Snake (Eva Huang) is the older sister (in the
myth she saved the Green Snake when just a baby and they became "sisters")
and curious about humans while her sister Green Snake (Charlene Choi) just
wants to have fun and wiggles a lot.
White Snake saves Xu Xian (Raymond Lam Fung)
from drowning with a kiss and they are forever connected. She takes on human
form to love and care for him. Green Snake thinks she is nuts. Poor Nengren
is bit by a Bat Demon and turns into a Giant Flying Bat and falls in love
with Green Snake. Damn old Fahai comes along and senses that White Snake
is a demon and feels he has to interfere and break it up. She implores him
that she just wants to love this man and will do no harm. He won't budge
and it turns into a CGI bonanza - way too much. The snakes and Fahai have
near superpowers and their CGI technicians battle it out. In between the
CGI are some nicely done scenes that are poetic and lovely. I shouldn't knock
the CGI too much - it is no more as I mentioned before than a Marvel film
- and some of it is well-done and imaginative - but still there is a part
of me that just wants to see Jet Li be the Jet Li of years ago but age catches
all of us in its ugly grasp.
